onels of the regiments on the Provincial war-sheet to disband their
regiments on pain of stoppage of pay. The colonels refused to take any
orders save from the Council of State and the captain-general. The
prince accordingly, with William Frederick and the Council of State,
appeared in the States-General and appealed to them to uphold the
colonels in their refusal. There could be no question that the Estates
of Holland were hopelessly in the wrong, for their representatives in
the States-General had in 1623,1626,1630 and 1642 voted for the
enforcement on recalcitrant provinces of the full quota at which they
were assessed for the payment of the army of the Union. The
States-General, June 5, therefore determined to send a "notable
deputation" to the towns of Holland. The prince was asked to head the
deputation, the members of which were to be chosen by him; and he was
invested with practically dictatorial powers to take measures for the
keeping of the peace and the maintenance of the Union. In doing this the
Generality were themselves acting _ultra vires_. The States-General was
an assembly consisting of the representatives of the Provincial Estates.
It could deal or treat therefore only with the Estates of the several
provinces, not with the individual towns within a province. In resisting
the interference of the Estates of Holland with matters that concerned
the Union as a whole, they were themselves infringing, by the commission
given to the "notable deputation," the jurisdiction of the Provincial
Estates over their own members.

The prince set out on June 8, and visited all the "privileged" towns.
The result was more than disappointing. The Council of the premier
municipality, Dordrecht, set the example by declaring that they were
answerable only to the Estates of the Province. Schiedam, Alkmaar, Edam
and Monnikendam gave the same reply. Delft and Haarlem were willing to
receive the prince as stadholder, but not the deputation. Amsterdam,
under the influence of the brothers Andries and Cornelis Bicker, went
even further and after some parleying declined to admit either the
deputation or the prince. On June 25 William returned to the Hague
bitterly chagrined by his reception and determined to crush resistance
by force.

The stroke he planned was to seize the representatives of six towns
which had been specially obstinate in their opposition, and at the same
time to occupy Amsterdam with an armed force. His preparatio